Km 36,068

I arrived to Belfast, the capital city of Northern Ireland, on Sunday at 22. It was very cold and it was sprinkling; the streets were empty and it seemed that I had arrived to a ghost city.

It was very difficult to find the youth hostel, I asked to more than ten people, but none could say to me the right way.

I stayed in Belfast few days I didn’t meet too many friendly people in the street and that was reflected on my sales. Belfast is an industrial city, with a population of more than 300.000 inhabitants and with very little tourism. This was the city where the Titanic was built; inclusive a monument exists in commemoration to those that died in the sinking of the ship in 1912.

But what I found more interesting it was, when in Republic of Ireland, I could know the history of the island and its reality.

It was in 1921 when Ireland was divided in two. The south became the state free of Ireland that would achieve its total independence in 1937. In the north, the Catholic minority suffered under the Protestant Government rules and at the end of the decade of 1960 exploded the protests in favour of the civil rights. The situation soon was outside of control and the attacks replaced the dialogue.

Coloumba an Irish guy who loved to relate me the history of his country told me that the Catholic minority of Northern Ireland declared the end to the armed fight few years ago and that the most Protestant also ceased the attacks with bombs; but that, there are who still carry out attacks with weapons. He also told me that the money to buy the arms comes from the smuggling of marijuana which arrives through blended loads with other merchandises from Holland

I was no longer surprised with the stories of Coloumba, but I left thoughtful Belfast; …like in many other sides of my trip I observed as the struggle for the power and the confrontation among religions also take to other ethnic groups.